Film #23 71 Fragments Of A Chronology Of Chance

People do things all the time that don’t make any sense. This is one of the key ideas put across in 71 Fragments Of A Chronology Of Chance. Also that most other films, particularly in Hollywood, are full of characters whose motivations and actions always make sense and only serve the purpose of the individual’s role in the story.  Michael Haneke wanted to play with this convention by creating a series of scenes involving characters where we don’t know a great deal about them and not everything that happens can be attributed to a specific role.

  

The film opens with text explaining how a young man killed a number of people in a bank one morning seemingly at random. It then pans back a few months and, as the title suggests, proceeds to play out random unrelated fragments of the lives of several characters leading up to the event interspersed with real news footage taken from the time.

   Haneke has a knack for the realistic. His unbridled detail of the mundane is not only compulsively hypnotic, but serves purpose to build a rapport with characters and only make the often shocking events of his films all the more unforgettable. It’s with this in mind that I say that 71 Fragments is his worst film out of the ones I’ve seen. The ideas behind it create an interesting point of discussion, but on screen, the constant shifting between seven or more different characters just makes for an uninteresting highlight real. The only character whose story is really worth following is that of a Romanian boy who illegally immigrated to Austria and his living alone on the streets. The rest of the film darts back and forth too often between characters and locations for any real connection to be felt with the audience. The result of which is mostly confusing, and often boring.

2/5

Film #22 Escape From Alcatraz

A small band of inmates in a high security prison each using their expertise to formulate the perfect escape plan. It’s a shame that this convention is a little stale now, as aspects of Escape From Alcatraz will seem a little tortured twenty-two years on. Luckily the film has a lot more to offer than just a standard break out story.

   Based on the true events of what was possibly the only successful break out of Alcatraz Prison. Clint Eastwood plays Frank Morris, a detainee who with the help of brothers John (Fred Ward) and Clarence Anglin (Jack Thibeau), devise a plan to escape the prison, a feat that no one before them had ever achieved.

   The film mostly follows Eastwood’s character from the time he arrives at the prison up until the escape attempt. The dialogue amongst the characters is minimal, save for a nice array of tough guy one liners. This does well in establishing how many years in prison under the reign of a rather merciless warden (played by Patrick McGoohan) have broken the spirits of these once hardened criminals. It also adds a shroud of mystery to the characters, the film itself could be described as an enigma. Very little is known about the three escapees including their ultimate fates, which itself adds an almost haunting quality to the proceedings. This is an awesome mix of Clint Eastwood film bravado and slow meditative character study which paved the way for many a story like it.

4/5

Film #21 Fish Tank

When watching the first few minutes of Fish Tank you would be forgiven for lumping it in with the usual straight to DVD foul mouthed shit that the British film industry provides on an almost weekly basis. The films central character Mia (Katie Jarvis) exerts her dominance by head butting another girl within the first ten minutes. It doesn’t take long though before the story establishes an emotional depth that most Danny Dyer vehicles could only dream off.

   Mia is fifteen years old and lives on an estate with her boorish mother (Kierston Wareing) and cocky little sister (Rebecca Griffiths). She spends her summer days either just walking the streets or practising her dance moves in one of the empty flats adjacent to where she lives. Her dream is to be a professional hip-hop dancer, not that she will admit it. She mostly hides her thoughts and ambitions behind a wall of insults and abrasiveness. However when her mother brings home a new boyfriend Connor (Michael Fassbender in another brilliant performance), things start to change. For better or worse, his presence slowly brings Mia out of her shell.

  

Directed by Andrea Arnold, this is a sterling combination of realistic story telling with a tale of lower class dreams. Mia isn’t driven to succeed in spite of disability or poor surroundings. In fact she isn’t driven to succeed at all. It’s not until Connor gives her a brief glimpse of self-worth that she finally decides to go to a dance audition. The rest of the time she resigns to the fact that her dreams are just that. The almost total lack of idealism is what makes the film stand out. This isn’t 8 Mile where the main character is going to become a loco hero. The best thing anyone can really hope for is to find their place within their means and achieve as much contentment as possible. By the end of the film, one of the main things Mia had learned is that the only person she can really rely on is herself. Which is a very bleak fact for any fifteen year old to have to face. The idea that the film conveys so perfectly though, is that even if Mia’s future doesn’t look too bright, it is at least in her control.

   4/5

Film #20 Black Swan

The jump off point seems so simple. Choose a sport or art form not typically used in mainstream cinema, and use it as a backdrop for an all inspiring character piece. First with The Wrestler and now with Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky has made a double bill of films with physically demanding roles, and central characters so driven to succeed that their own determination and passion can only lead to one thing.

   That’s not to say Black Swan is just a ballet version of The Wrestler, far from it. Where that film was a tale of redemption and the physical ramifications of a life of self-abuse, this film focuses on the psychological torment that comes when the pressure to succeed is thrust upon you from all angles.

   Natalie Portman, in possibly the best role of her career, plays Nina Sayers. A ballet dancer who is picked to play the Swan Queen in her dance companies version of Swan Lake, replacing previous lead Beth (Winona Ryder). Nina thinks her grasp of the role is a tumultuous one. Her director Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) tells her that her pleasant demeanour and flawless performance make her perfect for The White Swan. Unfortunately though, she does not have the sensuousness and passion that is vital in playing the Black Swan. It’s this criticism and the obvious abilities of her under study Lily that cause a deep paranoia and obsession based on her performance. Pretty soon reality and what Nina perceives are very hard for her to tell apart.  All the while she lives with her possessive mother, a failed dancer, who wants total control of her daughter’s life.

   Aronofsky’s gritty hand held style fits the subject matter like a glove. Every twisted hallucination Nina has is made all the more scary by the fact that it feels like we are in the room with her. The audience themselves are made to be just as deluded as she is about what is actually happening and what’s in her head. It’s this uncertainty and concern that make the film totally engrossing. The tension builds more and more as the scenes get more and more horrific and Nina’s psyche descends further until the films ultimate release at the end.

   Portman’s performance is mesmerising; the months of training involved will surely garner plenty of method credibility and awards. But the real skill is in the nuances. The early scenes of the film establish her meek and virginal childlike disposition which can mostly be attributed to her mother (Barbara Hershey). As the pressure from her director to connect with the Black Swan mounts higher she starts to connect with her sexuality for the first time as well as free herself from the emotional shackles that her mother has placed on her. Ironically though it’s this suspension of repression that adds to diminish Nina’s mental state, as she becomes more and more determined to succeed at any cost. 

This truely is blistering cinema, the kind of film that can be watched again and again and you could notice something new every time. Easily an early contender for one of the films of the year.

5/5